Note: The information contained in this article is structured as help information for the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) and is not intended for general reading.
Provides a short text description of the adapter.
Indicates the current status of the adapter. Possible values are available, indicating that the adapter is configured in the system and ready to use, and defined, indicating that the adapter is defined to the system but not configured.
Indicates the size of the adapter's receive queue. Valid values are 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. The default value is 32.
Network Terminal Accelerator (Ethernet Adapter)
A high-performance, single-port Ethernet adapter that reduces demand on the host CPU by processing TCP/IP telnet and rlogin protocols on the adapter.
Allows you to configure the attributes of the adapter that are related to the HTY interface.
Select or specify the rhp device to configure. Only devices in the available state can be configured.
When you change any values, this field must be set to yes to apply the changes immediately. This operation cannot succeed unless all devices on all adapters are not busy; that is, all channels must be closed. To close all channels, disable all HTY devices with the pdisable command and detach the network interface driver with the chdev command.
Alternatively, if this field is set to no, any changes made will take effect the next time you restart the system.
Adds an SNMP community to the community profile for the adapter.
Deletes an SNMP community from the community profile for the adapter. The community is not explicitly removed from the profile, but is marked na (No access) for the entire management information base (MIB).
Indicates the number of transmit requests that can be queued for transmission by the device driver. Valid values range from 32 through 16384. The default value is 8192.
Indicates the number of transmit requests that can be queued for transmission by the device driver. Valid values range from 512 through 16384. The default value is 8192.
Indicates the number of transmit requests that can be queued for transmission by the device driver. Valid values range from 16 through 16384. The default value is 8192.
The device's Fibre Channel node name. The node name is unique for targets in different enclosures and is usually the world-wide name of one of the targets in that enclosure. Nodes are the same for all LUN's in the same target.
Select "Yes" to cause the device driver to poll the adapter to determine the status of the link at a specified time interval. The time interval value is specified in the "Time Interval for Link Polling" field. If you select "No", the device driver will not poll the adapter for it's link status. The default value is 'No'.
The amount of time, in milli-seconds, between polls to the adapter for it's link status that the device driver is allowed. This value is required when the "Enable Link Polling" option is set to "Yes". You can specify a value between 100 through 1000. The incremental value is 10. The default value is 500.
The type of channel that is configured. In "standard" mode, the channel sends the packets to the adapter based on an algorithm (the value used for this calculation is determined by the "Hash Mode" attribute). In "round_robin" mode, the channel gives one packet to each adapter before repeating the loop. The default mode is "standard".
The "8023ad" mode enables the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) to negotiate the adapters in the link aggregation with a LACP-enabled switch.
If the "Hash Mode" attribute is set to anything other than "default", this attribute must be set to "standard" or "8023ad". Otherwise, the configuration of the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation will fail.
NOTE: In previous releases, a third mode of operation, "netif_backup", existed. EtherChannel backup makes it unnecessary to have this as an explicit operation mode because the functionality previously provided by the "netif_backup" mode can still be achieved by configuring only one adapter in the EtherChannel and specifying a backup adapter. This causes the adapter in the EtherChannel to be used until it fails, at which point the backup adapter is used.
The IP address that the EtherChannel should ping to verify that the network is up. This feature may only be enabled when there is a backup adapter and one or more main adapters. An address of zero (or all zeroes) is ignored and disables the sending of ping packets if a valid address was previously defined. Information in this field is optional. The default is to leave this field blank.
The number of lost ping packets before the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation switches adapters. This attribute only takes effect if there is a backup adapter, one or more main adapters, and the "Internet Address to Ping" field contains a non-zero address. The range of valid values is 2 to 100 retries. The default value is 3. Information in this field is optional.
Controls how often the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation sends out a ping packet to poll the current adapter for link status. This attribute only takes effect if there is a backup adapter, one or more main adapters, and the "Internet Address to Ping" field contains a non-zero address. Specify the timeout value in seconds. The range of valid values is 1 to 100 seconds. The default value is 1 second. Information in this field is optional.
The speed at which the adapter attempts to operate.
Select auto-negotiation if you want the adapter to determine the speed at which to run across the network. If the network does not support auto-negotiation, select a specific speed. Make sure you select the correct speed so that the adapter functions properly. Possible values you can select include:
The number of Transmit Command Blocks (TCBs) that will be created to be used by the device driver to transmit packets and to communicate commands to the adapter. Valid values range from 100 to 1024. The default value is 512.
The number of Receive Frame Descriptors (RFDs) that the device driver will create to be used by the adapter to write the data it receives. The device driver can be configured to have values between 100 and 1024. The default value is 512.
The number of transmit requests that can be queued for transmission by the device driver. Valid values range from 512 through 16384. The default value is 8192.
Specify a number between 512 and 2048 to indicate the number of mbuf clusters to be obtained from the system and marked as private (return to device driver on free). The default is 1024. The device driver copies the received frame from the RFDs into these buffers before passing these mbufs to the protocol stack. The pool consists of 1600 byte long mbuf clusters. For performance reasons, the value of this attribute should be greater than the receive descriptor queue size.
To indicate that the address of the adapter, as it appears on the LAN network, is the one specified by the Alternate Ethernet address attribute, select "Yes". To use the unique adapter address written in a ROM on the adapter card, select "no". The default is "no".
Allows the adapter unique address, as it appears on the LAN network, to be changed. The value must be an Ethernet address of 12 hexadecimal digits and must not be the same as the address of any other Ethernet adapter. The default value is 0x000000000000. This field has no effect unless the Enable Alternate Ethernet address attribute is set to "Yes", in which case this field must be filled in. A typical Ethernet address is: 0x0002556A008B. The address must contain all 12 hexadecimal digits, including leading zeros.
Sets the speeds and duplex mode of the adapter. You can specify the following values: 10_Half_Duplex, 10_Full_Duplex, 100_Half_Duplex, 100_Full_Duplex, and Auto_Negotiation. The default is Auto_Negotiation.
To enable the device driver to tell the adapter to do receive checksumming for TCP and UDP packets, select "Yes". The default is "Yes".
To enable polling of the adapter for a link status change, select "Yes". This adapter is not interrupt driven for link status change, but implementations like EtherChannel can use this attribute. The default is "no".
The device driver will poll the adapter for a Link status change for every time period (in milli-seconds) equal to the value held in this attribute. This attribute has meaning only if the Enable Link Polling attribute is set "Yes". This attribute holds values ranging from 100 to 1000, with an incremental value of 10. The default value is 500.
The number of bytes that the adapter can preload into its Transmit FIFO before it sends it on the wire. The default value is 256 bytes, which has been found to be the most optimum preload value from a performance perspective.
To allow users to offload IP Security (IPSec) functionality onto the card, select "Yes". The default is "no".
To enable the adapter to perform Large Send operations, select "Yes". The default is "no".
Allows the adapter to re-segment TCP on transmitted TCP segments. This allows TCP/IP to send larger datagrams to the adapter, which can increase performance. Select "Yes" to allow re-segmentation. Select "No" if you do not want the adapter to perform re-segmentation. The default value is "Yes".
The failover configuration for the port. You can select "primary", "backup", or "disable". Select "primary" if the port will act as the primary port in a failover configuration for a 2-port gigabit adapter. Select "backup" if the port will act as the backup port in a failover configuratin for a 2-port gigabit adapter. Select "disable" if the port is not a member of a failover configuration. The default setting is "disable".
The adapter used as a backup if all the adapters in the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation fail. You can select this adapter from the pop-up menu. Selecting a backup adapter is not required.
The adapters that will make up the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. Selecting these adapters is required.
Select "Yes" if the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation will use the hardware address specified in the "Alternate EtherChannel address" field. Select "No" if the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation will use the hardware address of one of the adapters that make up the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. The default is "No". Selecting this field is optional.
The hardware address that the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation will use. It must start with "0x" to denote that the address is expressed in hexadecimal. The "0x" should be followed by exactly 12 characters that represent the 6 bytes of the address in hexadecimal. You can use only valid hexadecimal characters (digits 0-9 and letters a-f or A-F). The letters can be upper or lower case. The address cannot contain hyphens or dots. An example of a valid address is: "0x0060957D8cD6". The default address is "0x000000000000", which indicates that no alternate address is specified.
To use the alternate EtherChannel address, select "Yes" in the "Enable Alternate EtherChannel Address" field. Information in this field is optional.
Select "Yes" to allow the EtherChannel to use jumbo frames. This allows the Ethernet MTU to increase to 9000 bytes per frame instead of the default 1500 bytes. Jumbo frames cannot be used when you configure an IEEE 802.3 (et) interface. The default value is "No". Changing the value of this field is optional.
If operating under standard or IEEE 802.3ad mode, the hash mode attribute determines how the outgoing adapter for each packet is chosen. In "default" mode, it uses the destination IP address to determine the outgoing adapter. In "src_port", it uses the source TCP or UDP port for that connection. In "dst_port", it uses the destination TCP or UDP port for that connection. In "src_dst_port" it uses both the source and destination TCP or UDP ports for that connection to determine the outgoing adapter.
You cannot use round-robin mode with any hash mode value other than "default". The EtherChannel configuration will fail if you attempt this combination.
If the packet is not TCP or UDP, it uses the default hashing mode (destination IP address).
Using TCP or UDP ports for hashing can make better use of the adapters in the EtherChannel, since connections to the same destination IP address can be sent over different adapters (while still retaining the order of the packets), thus increasing the bandwidth of the EtherChannel.
The name of the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation whose attributes are being shown. You cannot edit the information in this field from this location.
The adapters that make up the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. You can change these adapters as long as the adapters you choose do not have an IP address configured over them.
Configures an EtherChannel or an IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation or lists or modifies existing EtherChannels or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregations.
An EtherChannel is an aggregation of Ethernet adapters that behaves, both to the operating system and to the switch the adapters are connected to, as one single Ethernet adapter. It does load balancing and provides redundancy in the face of adapter failure. EtherChannel requires support in the switch the adapters are connected to. This switch must be enabled for EtherChannel and manually configured to let it know which ports belong to the EtherChannel.
An IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation, like an EtherChannel, is an aggregation of Ethernet adapters that behaves as one. In EtherChannel, the switch must be manually configured to let it know which ports belong to the aggregation. An EtherChannel working in IEEE 802.3ad mode automatically negotiates with the switch which adapters belong to the aggregation. This switch must support the IEEE 802.3ad standard.
Displays a list of all the EtherChannels or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregations that are currently configured in the system.
Creates an EtherChannel or an IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. An IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation is an EtherChannel whose mode of operation is "8023ad".
Displays the attributes of existing EtherChannels or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregations for you to view or change. You can modify the attributes of an EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation even if its interface is configured with an IP address (with a few limitations).
If its interface is not yet configured, you can modify any attribute of the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. If its interface is already configured, you can add or delete adapters and modify certain attributes without having to first detach the interface.
Removes an EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation from the system. You can remove an EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation only if its adapter is not yet configured, for example, if it does not have an IP address configured over it.
Displays a list of the EtherChannels or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregations that are currently configured on this system.
Select the backup adapter to delete it from the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation. You can delete the backup adapter and, at the same time, delete a main adapter or add a main adapter or backup adapter. You can perform this operation whether or not the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface is configured with an IP address.
Select one or more main adapters to add them to the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation. You can add one or more main adapters and, at the same time, add a backup adapter or delete a main adapter or backup adapter. You can perform this operation whether or not the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface is configured with an IP address.
Select one or more main adapters to delete them from the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation. You can delete one or more main adapters and, at the same time, delete the backup adapter or add a main adapter or backup adapter. You can perform this operation whether or not the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface is configured with an IP address.
Select the adapter you want to make the backup adapter of the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation. The backup adapter is used for all traffic when all the adapters in the EtherChannel fail. You cannot add a backup adapter if there is a backup adapter defined already (unless you also specify that the existing backup adapter should be deleted).
You can add a backup adapter and, at the same time, add a main adapter or delete a main adapter or the previous backup adapter. You can perform this operation whether or not the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface is configured with an IP address.
The adapters that currently make up the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation. If you want to modify these adapters, you can either modify this attribute and select all the adapters that should belong to the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation, or you can modify the "Add Main Adapter" or "Delete Main Adapter" attributes to add or delete one or more adapters, respectively. The main difference is that you can add or delete adapters regardless of whether or not an IP address has been configured over the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface. On the other hand, if you want to use this attribute instead and select all the adapters that should belong to the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation, its interface must NOT have an IP address configured.
This attribute is affected by the "Apply change to DATABASE only" attribute: if it is set to "Yes", this attribute's value will be saved in ODM, but the EtherChannel / Link Aggregation will not be immediately reconfigured with the new value.The adapter used for all traffic when all the adapters in the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation fail. To change this adapter, you can either modify this attribute and select the adapter that should act as a backup to the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation, or you can modify the "Add Backup Adapter" or "Delete Backup Adapter" attributes to add or delete the backup adapter, respectively. The main difference is that you can add or delete the backup adapter regardless of whether or not an IP address has been configured over the EtherChannel/ Link Aggregation's interface.
If you want to use this attribute instead and select the adapter that should act as the backup to the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation, its interface must NOT have an IP address configured. For example, to change the backup adapter from "ent2" to "ent3", you can either use this attribute and select "ent3" as the backup adapter, or you can delete the current backup adapter ("ent2") and add "ent3" as the backup adapter using the "Delete Backup Adapter" and "Add Backup Adapter" attributes, respectively. This attribute is affected by the "Apply change to DATABASE only" attribute: if it is set to "Yes", this attribute's value will be saved in ODM, but the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation will not be immediately reconfigured with the new value.
This attribute affects the following attributes: EtherChannel/Link Aggregation Adapters, Backup Adapter, and Enable Gigabit Ethernet Jumbo Frames.
When set to "Yes", the new value of these attributes are saved in ODM, but the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation is not immediately reconfigured with the new value. All other attributes take effect immediately, regardless of the value of this attribute.
This is ideal in situations where it is currently impossible to unconfigure the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation's interface but it is imperative to modify the value of an attribute that may be changed only when the interface is not configured. In this case, the attribute's value will be saved in the ODM and it will be used the next time the machine is rebooted.
Select "Yes" to allow the EtherChannel to use jumbo frames. This allows the Ethernet MTU to increase to 9000 bytes per frame instead of the default 1500 bytes. Jumbo frames cannot be used when you configure an IEEE 802.3 (et) interface. The default value is "No". Changing the value of this field is optional.
This attribute is affected by the "Apply change to DATABASE only" attribute. If it is set to "Yes", this attribute's value will be saved in the ODM, but the EtherChannel/Link Aggregation will not be immediately reconfigured with the new value.
The speed at which the adapter attempts to operate. Select "auto-negotiation" if you want the adapter to determine the speed at which to run across the network. This is the default. If the network does not support auto-negotiation, select "1000 Mbps full-duplex".
Select "No" to keep EtherChannel from automatically recovering to the main channel after a failover occurs. The default value is "Yes". If you select "Yes", EtherChannel automatically recovers to the main channel as soon as one of the main adapters recovers. This attribute is only valid if a backup adapter is defined.
Forces a failover (or a recovery) in an EtherChannel that is configured with a backup adapter. The failover (or recovery) can only be forced if the other channel is up. If the other channel is down, the failover will not occur. This function is particularly useful when the failover was due to a ping failure. If there is a ping failure, the EtherChannel stays on the backup adapter until you force a failover or the backup adapter fails.
Sets the maximum number of split transactions the device is permitted to have outstanding at one time. Must be tuned with in-depth knowledge of the system.
Range: 0 to 7
Default Value: 1
Sets the maximum byte count the device uses when initiating a sequence with one of the burst memory read commands.
Range: -1 to 3
Default Value: 3
mmrb_count = -1, uses default BIOS value
mmrb_count = 0 , corresponds to 512B
mmrb_count = 1 , corresponds to 1KB
mmrb_count = 2 , corresponds to 2KB
mmrb_count = 3 , corresponds to 4KB
Sets the time interval, in microseconds, between receive timer interrupts generated for this ring. Generated only in the presence of inbound traffic.
Range: 0 to 65535
Default Value: 250
Sets the receive link utilization range for the main ring.
Range: 0 to 100
Default Value: 10
Sets the time interval, in microseconds, between transmit timer interrupts generated for this ring. Generated only in presence of the transmit traffic, unless the "Enable Generation of Continuous Interrupt" field is set.
Range: 0 to 65535
Default Value: 4000
Enables/disables the generation of a continuous interrupt. Setting this variable to one results in the generation of continuous interrupts at the interval set in the "Transmit Interrupt Frequency" field, irregardless of the presence of transmit traffic.
Default Value: 1 (Enabled)
Sets the maximum number of times the driver's ISR checks for Transmit and Receive completions. Values greater than zero permit the driver to loop back to check for newly completed descriptors, and if found, to process them without leaving the interrupt context.
Range: 0 to 65535
Default Value: 8
Configures the EtherChannel or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation to finalize a ping failover only after it has made sure that the backup channel is able to send and receive packets. This is beneficial because if the backup switch port has not yet been initialized, such as when the backup switch has just come up, it may be better to keep using the primary adapter until the backup adapter is ready to send traffic. This may serve to minimize the number of packets lost after a ping failover. Change this value to 'no' if you would rather have an immediate failover when a ping failure is detected. The default value is 'yes'.
Etherchannel shown is a part of this parent adapter. This field cannot be edited.
Setting this attribute to Yes indicates that the adapter should calculate the checksum for transmit TCP frames. If you specify No, the checksum will be calculated by the appropriate software. The default value is Yes. Note: The mbuf describing a frame to be transmitted contains a flag that specifies whether the adapter should calculate the checksum for the frame.
Setting this attribute to Yes indicates that the adapter should calculate the checksum for received TCP frames. If you specify No, the checksum will be calculated by the appropriate software. The default value is Yes. Note: The mbuf describing a received frame x contains a flag that specifies whether the adapter calculated the checksum for the frame.
Setting this attribute to Yes indicates that the adapter should use multiple receive interrupt sources if available to enable parallel receive traffic processing.